Till Agamemnons daughters bloode
Appeasde the goddes, that them withstode.
And how that in those ten years warre,
Full many a bloudye dede was done,
And many a lord, that came full farre,
There caught his bane (alas)to sone:
And many a good knight ouerronne,
Before the Grekes had Helene wonne.

Lines such as these are more like the medieval treatment of Grecian
"knights" and of "Duke Hannyball," and the rime-scheme,
ababcc, is that used, according to Gascoigne, in the Ballade, ¹ and
serving "beste for daunces and light matters." The very word
comes from the Medieval Latin ballare. All this reminds one that
besides the obvious classical strain there is the other, the Medieval
Latin strain, in Surrey. It must be remembered that he was
brought up with a knowledge of poets following medieval prece-
dents. It was for his uncle, the Admiral, that Barclay wrote the
Tower of Honour and Virtue, and,--what is much more important--
Skelton was in some sort an attaché of the Howards. ² It will be
remembered ³ that the Medieval Latin scanned by the number of
accents rather than the number of syllables in a line. So in the
second, third and fifth lines of the second stanza of the last passage
quoted, there is an extra syllable. For instance, in the line,

Full many a bloúdye déde was dóne,

the second foot is an anapest. Quite clearly this is not due to a de-
sire to copy classic meters; it is due to medieval precedent. This
gives the point of view necessary to understand Gascoigne's re-
marks in the next age: ⁴

For furder explanation hereof, note you that commonly now a dayes in eng-
lish rimes (for I dare not cal them English verses) we use none other order but a

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